Our DanceWeekend’24 Artist Feature is Joanne Baker as a part of our virtual & in person workshop series!
SUNDAY, JANUARY 28, 2024 1pm – 6pm – VIRTUAL AND IN – PERSON
11am Workshop: Jazz Dance for Everyone with Joanne Baker
Register for joining in person HERE – Register for joining virtual HERE
🔗 https://www.instagram.com/jmbaker242/
About Joanne Baker:
After dancing and touring nationally with Decidedly Jazz Danceworks (DJD) for 7 seasons, Joanne moved into several administrative support roles for the organization including Artistic Assistant, Arts in Education Coordinator, Dance School Principal, and most recently, Artistic Outreach Associate. Teaching and sharing her love of jazz dance has been an integral part of Joanne’s 30-year career. Inspired by her mentors of the DJD style and philosophy along with countless jazz artists from the vast history of jazz dance, she has travelled across Canada conducting workshops and intensives in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Lethbridge, Yellowknife, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Halifax. Prior to moving to the GTA in 2020, Joanne was a regular teacher for DJD’s professional company and its professional training program and coordinated and taught at several jazz intensive workshops bringing together dancers from across Canada and the United States. Joanne has taught several sessions as a guest instructor at the University of Calgary, and taught children, teens, and adults at the School of Decidedly Jazz along with many dance studios around Calgary. She has presented at the World Dance Alliance America’s Annual Conference (2012) in Vancouver, BC, the NDEO Special Topics (Jazz Dance) Conference (2019) in Newport, Rhode Island and the NDEO National Conference (2022) in Atlanta, Georgia. Currently living east of Toronto, Ontario, Joanne has been leading workshops and master classes for the Toronto community and recently was a guest faculty member at Toronto Metropolitan University. You can find her at Metro Movement on Tuesday nights teaching Inter/Adv jazz.
What will you be sharing at DanceWeekend’24?
Jazz dance has a broad and varied history that has, over time, evolved beyond it origins within the African American experience and Black American culture. This workshop hopes to re-introduce these origins to people of all levels and abilities and bring an awareness of how to nourish and embrace much of what has been lost in many contemporary jazz classes today. Jazz is deeply personal in its execution and connection to the music. It inspires creativity, honesty and authenticity. It is rhythmic; full of depth and colour. Through guided exploration, circle dances, and set choreography, participants will be encouraged to find their groove, release their preconceived ideas of jazz dance, and understand that jazz dance is for everybody!